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How many items do you tend to lose on a regular basis? Keys, wallets and phones come to mind as commonly misplaced items — and they’re also common things you can put an Apple AirTag on to help keep track of their whereabouts. However, we’ve got several more things you may have not thought of before.
While generally you need to be within Bluetooth range to find your AirTag, you can use Apple’s Find My service to locate it if it’s further away but — and this is important to remember — still in range of another Apple device (here’s how the Find My network works). To do so, just put your AirTag into Lost Mode and you’ll get a notification once it’s within range of the Find My network.
We’ll tell you some unexpected places to put an AirTag to help prevent you from constantly retracing your steps. For more details, here’s how to tell if an AirTag is tracking your location on Android.
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In your tent when you go hiking
If you’re setting up camp in a location you’ve never visited, it could be useful to place an AirTag inside your tent so you can easily find your campsite. For instance, if you decide to hike several miles one day, you can use Find My to look up the AirTag’s last location (your tent) and get directions back to the campsite. Remember, it’ll need to be within range of anyone else’s device, so don’t rely on this out in the wilderness. (This is also why Apple advises you not to use AirTags on pets.)
In your jacket pocket
How often have you left your coat behind in a restaurant, bar or friend’s house? Forgetting to grab your jacket when you head out is easy to do, especially if the weather is warmer than you expected or your hands are full of leftovers and to-go cups.
If you know you’ll be hanging your jacket on a coat rack — or the back of a chair — when you arrive, place an AirTag inside the pocket so you know where you left it. This can help prevent yet another favorite jacket from getting lost, and less money out of your wallet to replace it.
Inside your luggage
Airports can be tricky to navigate, and can become especially difficult when you’re trying to find the correct luggage pickup. Sometimes you wait 30 minutes until your bags finally roll out on the conveyor belt — and sometimes they get lost. To relieve the stress of trying to locate your suitcase, you can put an AirTag tracker inside so you can track its whereabouts.
This can help you find out if your bags were left on the airplane, if they’re on the conveyor belt but you haven’t spotted them yet or if someone mistakenly grabbed your luggage. Once you find out where your bags are, you can remedy the situation and continue on to where you’re going.
Place an AirTag inside your laptop bag so you’ll stop misplacing it.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Inside your laptop bag
Laptop bags can be easily left behind at a cafe when you’re picking up coffee for everyone at the office. When your hands are full and you’re distracted wondering how you’re going to open your car door, it’s hard to remember to grab your bag from the booth you were sitting in.
That’s why it’s a good idea to place an AirTag inside one of the pockets. You will be able to not only locate your expensive laptop but also save any confidential company or personal information you had in your bag.
In a hidden place on your bicycle
If it hasn’t happened to you, you probably know someone who has had this experience. You get home from a bike ride, go inside to grab water and something to eat and completely forget about the bike you left outside. Or maybe you went to the store, didn’t lock your bike up and when you came back it was gone.
If you place an AirTag in a hidden place on the bike, you can easily locate it. We don’t recommend tracking the bicycle down on your own though. It’s best to notify the police and let them retrieve your bike for you to avoid any dangerous situations.
This method also works on your car if it’s been stolen or towed away — or if you can’t remember where you parked it. Although if you have an iPhone and it’s connected to your car via Bluetooth, your phone can locate where you last left it.
Your iPhone can find your AirTag.
Sarah Tew/CNET
More common areas to put your AirTag
AirTag is commonly used to locate these items.
- Your purse or wallet
- Your keychain
- Your phone or tablet
- The remote to your TV
- Anything valuable that you leave outside your home
For more Apple information, here’s how to send secret messages on your iPhone. Also, this new iOS 16 feature can save you from cringeworthy iPhone texts.
